For his latest project, he takes on the highway. Teaming up with the Dutch civil engineering firm Heijmans, Roosegaarde has illuminated a 500m stretch of highway in the Netherlands with glow in the dark paint.

Like in many of Roosegaarde's projects, the technology involved is elegant, rather than cutting-edge. The glowing lines are created using paint mixed with a "photo-luminising" powder, a substance that charges up in the sunlight and releases a green (almost radioactive) glow at night. It's both eerily beautiful and cost-efficient, as the paint eliminates the need for expensive streetlights.

"I'm not so interested in design, to be honest. I'm more interested in reforming things," Roosegaarde says in a video explaining the project. "How can we make truly interactive and sustainable environments which connect people? When you look at highways, why is it that so much time, energy and money is spent on cars when the actual roads are stuck in the Middle Ages? Why can't we develop paint that charges during the daytime and gets light at night?"

Well, he's done it. While the glow in the dark strip of highway is still a pilot project (and does not include temperature sensitive markers), the BBC reports that it could be rolled out internationally later this year.